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It’s costume drama, but not as we know it. Having recently offered radical, unforgettable reinventions of Cinderella and Peter Pan, the director Sally Cookson now offers a four-and-a-half hour version of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel, spread over two separate performances. It calls for commitment, no question. Yet newcomers and Brontë-holics alike will be gripped, amused and moved by a boldly theatrical show whose innovations and heresies are always there to serve the story.

It starts and ends with a swaddled baby girl held by a loving parent. Between those moments, life is rougher for Madeleine Worrall’s diminutive, defiant, Yorkshire-accented Jane.